by jean-luc picard 8 Replies latest jw friends
My stepson has just finished his national exams in his mother tongue.
Talking about how it went, I suddenely had a flashback.
Did you, like me, used to right about the "new system" paradise, or other jw stuff, given any opportunity, ( usually in English essays ) ?
............... and did you count the time?
No!
I did give a talk in front of an RE class about JW beliefs - that was stupid, ended up smacking someone in the gob for taking the piss afterwards!
cantleave: LOL
What is a national exam? Why did he have to take it? Totally ADD
I don't know what a national exam is. America basically tests at the state level and the states differ widely in what is acceptable. Well, now the national government is trying to impose some standards. It is controversial. States don't want to give up their historic power. The most basic power resides in the states. Only the specific and limited grants to the federal government are national.
I never wanted to remind schoolmates that I was a Witness. The only thing I ever did was to question evolution. I was eleven and brash. My other grades were affected by all the care and time. My teacher was so nice but he was going to give me a D. I thought I would pass out. My friends who disagreed with me said it was very unfair. I was not a scientist. They told him all the work I did.
JWs might know more of the Bible and their doctrines if we had to write essays. Sometimes I don't understand something after hundreds of hours of research. The very act of writing clarifies it.
I had not anticipated the different examination systems that exist.
America basically tests at the state level
I suppose that in America, a state is the equivalent of a country in Europe. In Europe, the exams differ widely between members of the EU.
An equivalent in England would be the 'A' levels ( if indeed they are still called that way).
At any rate, the point I wish to make has nothing to do with the exams themselves, but rather if we were " encouraged" to "witness" at any given
oportunity at school, and that even during written exams if the chance arose.
I had a Jw friend at school, the one who got me into it, write her book review on You Can Live Forever in a Paradise Earth as it was just before the Knowledge book came out. I, the A English student, thought it missed the point of the assignment...
always shyed away from giving "witness" or confessing to be one, even in my days of fully believing, somehow I always was embarrassed, only when it was absolutley necessary, like during holiday season, I came forward. Then sometimes question arose, and I could give a wonderful witness (rather an attempt to prove, why i am not aboslutely nuts as most people think JW are anyway)
The only time I remember in school talking about God was when i defended the belief in creation, thinking that my education on this level (based on the old creation-book) was soo much better than any college education concerning evolution. I feel still ashamed when I think of how ignorant and stupid I was.
